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ABSTINENCE EDUCATION

Not surprisingly, a recent Zogby survey shows that when parents understand what abstinence vs. "comprehensive" sex education actually teaches, they prefer abstinence education by a 2-1 margin. The health and future of our teens depend on a common sense approach that works.

A review of “comprehensive” sex education curricula from a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) study. The government report reveals how the most commonly used sex education programs have virtually no effect in keeping teens from having sex yet contain numerous sexually explicit lessons taught to teens as young as 13. Of the nine commonly used curricula studied in the HHS report, most showed no impact in preventing teen sex, and one failed to even evaluate program effectiveness. All the programs reviewed by the HHS devoted an overwhelming amount of teaching time to topics such as condom usage, condom demonstration and sexual game play as methods of “safe” sex.

“Although they receive ten times the amount of government money as abstinence programs, so-called ‘comprehensive sex education’ has not been proven to delay teen sex,” states Valerie Huber, Executive Director of National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA). “The predominant message encourages sexual activity. The message of abstinence is virtually non-existent.”

The HHS study also revealed some startling components of the “comprehensive” sex education programs for teens as young as 13 include lessons include:

• Advocating showering together as a no risk activity.
• Promoting methods for sexual stimulation.
• Conducting sexual role-play on how to help a partner maintain an erection.
• Describing how to eroticize condom use with a partner.
• Suggesting teens wear shades or a disguises when shopping for condoms so adults and parents won’t recognize them.

Parents communicated their strong support for abstinence education, as currently funded by Congress, in a recent 2007 Zogby poll. In fact, regardless of ideological leaning, parents from across America supported abstinence education over ‘comprehensive’ sex education by a 2:1 margin. The very topics that parents wanted curricula to cover are absent in most ‘comprehensive’ sex education.”

The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) today released a new survey from Zogby International showing that when parents become aware of what abstinence education vs. comprehensive sex education actually teaches, support for abstinence programs jumps from 40% to 60%, while support for comprehensive programs drops from 50% to 30%. This sharp increase in support of abstinence education is seen across all political and economic groups. As federal and state lawmakers debate funding for sex education in public schools, this new survey offers a compelling look into what parents want for their children.

“These results confirm broad-based support for abstinence education, including teaching teens about developing healthy relationships and increasing self worth and self control,” said Valerie Huber, executive director of the NAEA. “While abstinence education has been continually misrepresented by its opponents, we were confident that parents would strongly prefer abstinence education over so-called “comprehensive” sex education after they received full, accurate information about this common sense educational approach.”

The survey also showed overwhelming parental support for how abstinence programs permit an age appropriate discussion of contraception within the context of promoting abstinence as the healthiest choice. In line with the abstinence education approach, most parents said they want their children to be taught the limitations of condoms in providing complete protection against specific STDs and to learn how often condoms fail in preventing pregnancy based upon typical use. The majority of parents reject the so-called “comprehensive” sex education approach, which focuses on promoting and demonstrating contraceptive use. Sixty-six percent of parents think that the importance of the “wait to have sex” message ends up being lost when programs demonstrate and encourage the use of contraception.

Key Facts from the Survey

• 59% of parents said more funding should go to abstinence education; 22% said more should go to comprehensive sex education.
• 83% of parents think it is important for their child to wait until they are married to have sex.
• 78% of parents think sex education classes in public schools should place more emphasis on promoting abstinence than on condom and other contraceptive use.
• 93% of parents agree sex education should include a discussion about the limitations of condoms in preventing specific STDs.

“This poll confirms that abstinence education is the preferred approach for the sex education of youth in America,” said Valerie Huber. Zogby International conducted a telephone survey of 1002 parents of children ages 10-16. The margin of error was +/- 3.2 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. Access the entire survey from Zogby International at www.abstinenceassociation.org.